Got a little progress done today. I pulled the cab back off, and the motor and tranny. I lifted the bare frame up onto a steel table I built out of old scrap steel so it would be easier to work on.
I went to work on getting the old leafspring bushings out. I got these 52's off of the rear of a late 70's 1/2T suburban. I found a pretty fast way to remove the old bushings. First, I cut the center sleeve down the middle length wise with my torch. This of course gets the rubber center flaming up really good
I let it burn for a minute, and then the center sleeve will pretty much fall out. Pop the rubber out with a screwdriver, and all you're left with is the outer sleeve. Then I took my portaband, and cut the sleeve thru the split in the leaf spring.
A sawzall or hacksaw would probably work too. You don't want to cut the whole length, or it will pinch your blade since it's under tension. You can cut it the rest of the way with a screwdriver, and then pry the sleeve into itself.
It will pretty much fall out after that. The whole thing takes less than 5 minutes per bushing.
The last thing i did was make my front leafspring mounts.
I found some scrap 3.5" square tube with 1/4 wall that worked perfect.